Monitoring decent work in Ireland. ESRI Research Series June 2021.

McGinnity, Frances and Russell, Helen and Privalko, Ivan and Enright, Shannen (2021) Monitoring decent work in Ireland. ESRI Research Series June 2021. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Work is core to people’s livelihood, their identity, and their well-being. Having a decent job gives workers adequate financial resources and contributes to their physical and mental health, their personal control and sense of purpose. Being unemployed or in poor quality work can have a damaging impact on other areas of life, including health, housing, or income. There has been extensive scholarship on labour market inequalities in Ireland, and while these studies offer significant insight into understanding the nature of work, they do not adopt a rights-based approach. This report considers decent work in Ireland in the context of international obligations about core minimum standards of work and nondiscrimination. It applies social science methods to monitoring international commitments on economic and social rights. This report develops a set of indicators for monitoring and then provides baseline figures on access to, and experience of, decent work across different groups in Ireland. Monitoring can provide evidence for policymakers, highlighting at-risk groups; it can inform the assessment of Ireland by UN international treaty monitoring; it can help to highlight data gaps and measurement limitations; and will also ideally inform public debate. The purpose is to highlight deficits or challenges in realising the right to decent work, rather than explaining the processes underlying these outcomes. Following a review of international measurement frameworks and consultation with stakeholders in Ireland, the report identifies six key dimensions of work and corresponding indicators: access to work; adequate earnings; employee voice; security and stability of work; equality of opportunity and treatment in employment; and health and safety. These are then applied to available survey data collected on the eve of the pandemic. Any assessment of the equality impact of the pandemic will be informed by understanding the situation prior to the pandemic. As is usual for a monitor, results for each indicator are presented as rates or scores for different groups and are not modelled. Therefore, the analysis does not allow us to identify the causes of group differences.

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